China’s Wen confident of a resolution to arms embargo

CHINA’S Prime Minister Wen Jiabao was upbeat about the prospect of the EU lifting the arms embargo imposed on his country in protest at the 1989 Tiananmen Square slaughter after arriving in Brussels yesterday (5 May).

European Voice

5/5/04, 5:00 PM CET

Updated 4/12/14, 10:04 AM CET

“I believe that the EU is looking at this question very positively, as are many of its members,” Wen said. “That’s why I have full confidence for a resolution to this problem.”

His optimism was bolstered by a pledge of support from his Belgian counterpart for scrapping the weapons sale ban.

However, Guy Verhofstadt said lifting it would be conditional on Beijing improving its human rights record.

This would include ratifying the UN’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and intensifying China’s political dialogue with the EU, “of which human rights forms an important part”, Verhofstadt added.

Nevertheless, Wen was loath to link such issues as repression of Tibetan Buddhists and Muslims in the Uighur province with the embargo. “I think we shouldn’t create links between the lifting of the embargo and conferring market economy status with other problems,” he commented.

North Korea, meanwhile, was high on the agenda of Wen’s talks with Javier Solana. The EU’s high representative for foreign affairs praised China’s involvement in the so-called six-party talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.

Yet there is likely to be some tough talking between Wen, European Commission President Romano Prodi and Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy today. The EU executive is perturbed over laws hindering European construction firms from bidding for hugely profitable contracts for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.